Nathaniel Mackey is the author of five books of poetry, the most recent of which are Splay Anthem (New Directions, 2006) and Nod House (New Directions, 2011); an ongoing prose work, From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate, whose fourth and most recent volume is Bass Cathedral (New Directions, 2008) and whose first three volumes have been published together as From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Volumes 1-3 (New Directions, 2010); and two books of criticism. He is the editor of the literary magazine Hambone. His awards and honors include a Whiting Writer’s Award, election to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, a National Book Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Duke University.

Marilyn Crispell has been a composer and performer of contemporary improvised music since 1978. For ten years, she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. She has performed and recorded extensively as a soloist and with players on the American and international jazz scene, also working with dancers, poets,
filmmakers, and visual artists, and teaching workshops on improvisation. She has been the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission.